The military is building a space plane

SpaceNut · 2018-07-16 19:14:29

The military is building a space plane. Now it looks to have an engine up to the task

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Boeing's reusable spaceplane, depicted as a rendering, is under development through a public-private partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A decade after the U.S. Air Force commissioned the next generation of GPS satellites, the first of these spacecraft is finally set to launch into orbit later this year.
As with other national security missions, a roughly 200-foot-tall rocket will blast the massive satellite to space, fulfilling a contract worth more than $80 million.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, along with aerospace giant Boeing Co., is developing a reusable spaceplane expected to launch small satellites 10 times in 10 days.
The vehicle’s first test flight is set for 2021, which hints at the Defense Department’s growing interest in reusable rocket technology, particularly its potential to drive down launch costs and speed up turnaround time.
In recent weeks, the spaceplane’s rocket engine, known as the AR-22, completed 10 test fires in 240 hours without need for refurbishments or major repairs, said Jeff Haynes, program manager at Aerojet Rocketdyne. The test firing took place at NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi from June 26 to July 6.
Scott Wierzbanowski, experimental spaceplane program manager at DARPA, described it as a “launch on demand” kind of service, in which smaller satellites could be taken to a specific orbit when they need to, rather than piggybacking onto scheduled launches that revolve around the needs of the larger, primary payload.
“The military right now is really reassessing their needs,” said Bill Ostrove, aerospace and defense analyst at Forecast International. “DARPA is trying to see what is possible.”
The Air Force has also developed the X-37B experimental space plane, which looks like a smaller version of the space shuttle orbiter. Details of its missions are scarce, but the uncrewed robotic space plane’s last mission involved 718 days in orbit before returning to Earth.
The 100-foot-long vehicle with a 62-foot wingspan is being designed for rapid reusability similar to that of commercial aircraft, program officials said. The spaceplane, however, will launch vertically like a typical rocket, deploy an expendable second-stage booster that will push the satellite to its intended orbit and then return to Earth and land horizontally like a plane on a runway.
To do this, Boeing has leaned on its commercial aircraft division. The composite materials used for the spaceplane’s fuel tanks, wing skins and other areas were based on investments made during development of the company’s 787 jetliner, which has an outer structure largely made of composites.
Total government funding for the spaceplane program is estimated at $146 million. Boeing declined to disclose its investment, saying only that it was a “significant commitment.” The ultimate goal is to reach a per-launch cost of $5 million, Wierzbanowski said.
That could make the spaceplane, once operational, significantly cheaper than the existing rockets already aimed at the medium-sized satellite market, including India’s PSLV, Europe’s Arianespace Vega and Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Minotaur IV. The launch price for a Minotaur or Vega rocket can range from $35 million to $40 million, said Phil Smith, senior space analyst at Bryce Space and Technology.
Boeing plans to commercialize the spaceplane, which it calls the Phantom Express, offering it to government and commercial customers.

tahanson43206 · 2023-01-16 12:53:42

For SpaceNut .... this topic you created should settle the question of where to put the new Space Plane topic for Space-Plane.org

(th)

SpaceNut · 2023-01-16 13:34:19

Actually, due to the political ramification this should have been put under free chat, whereas the other seems to fit in the science.

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#1 2018-07-16 19:14:29

The military is building a space plane

#2 2023-01-16 12:53:42

Re: The military is building a space plane

#3 2023-01-16 13:34:19

Re: The military is building a space plane

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